That's where I got the idea. The point is that at this point, where does the character have to go? what's their motivation for running if they own 4/10ths of the world superpowers. They can literally buy a country and retire! Their shares are netting them more per week than most runners make in a month. There is no reason for them to be getting their own hands dirty at this point.

there is still 6/10 before they achieve total world domination *shrug* make runs for world Domination

or use your staggering amounts of cash to get runners to do your work for you, rather than risk losing everything and getting killed by putting yourself on the front lines.

As a general rule, if favorite character gets too powerful in our games they retire to either Johnson or Fixer roles, with the new runners then being hired to further their agenda.

you could also take them into a Mentor role for those that don't fit Johnson or Fixer roles. or occasional Mercenary.

True.

I actually like the idea of Retired PC runners becoming trainers for later games as well. Imagine your 12 skill Firearms master (12 skill in several types of guns) opening up his own Firearms Training Facility for Runner's.

yeah, but when was the last time you saw a character with the instruction skill?

players maybe not, but a GM can rule that after a Runner retires he may pick it up. it makes more sense that, unless it is a direct part of their story, a runner might pick the instruction skill up after he retires to pass his skills (some skills) on to the younger generation of runner's

Chances are that you will be on the front lines whether you want to put yourself there or not. Better to be the do-er rather than the do-ee. If it was a game I was GMing, such a thing would not come to pass without the character having access to some sort of business and/or law related skill/skill set. He simply wouldn't know how to pull it off. However if someone were to have such control over AAA corps, I'd say that he has just become a target and he has to be very 1337 to avoid being Art-ificed, at the very least access to Lanier-level in terms of security skill or Kane-level in terms of being a 404.

More in a *minute* than more runners make in a month. Just sayin'.

Seriously, this guy has posted requests for a spirit with a skill of 30. I can only assume that his game has exceeded the normal limits, in terms of karma and cash, and he's trying to figure out what to do with enough power and wealth to make Lowfyr weep with envy. I don't tell people how they should play, I just respond to requests (albeit with tongue in cheek at times).


That's Cain, and thank you, I am good at not being noticed. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif)

Yeah, there's been a few weird questions popping up recently. The Police one too

Though, from reading the other topics, the corporation isn't a player controlled one. Pattyhulez is the GM and the corp is I presume his 'big bad'. The reason you're confused is because it's only ever referred to as 'my corp' (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The point is, as GM, really you can do whatever you want as long as the players buy it and you all have fun. Things like this don't really make sense in a real-world setting, but in your game you can do whatever you want (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

As far as thought experiments go it's an interesting one, but go ahead and put me in the "it couldn't be done" camp. For the simple problem of too many moving parts.

1) Money - You need gobs of it, astronomical amounts of it. You'd have to knock off a Great Dragon, then invest their horde wisely for a few years, then maybe you'd have enough, maybe.

2) Intractability - A lot of people who have the requisite shares you need just won't want to sell at any price you care to mention. Their stock shares make them kings and neo-feudal lords and there just isn't anything to move up to in many cases. Getting them under duress might be possible but poses it's own challenges.

3) Autonomy, part of the whole point of putting the CC up on a space station is to give the justices a fair amount of autonomy, even from their parent corps. That's why there's justices at all and not just the CEO's of the corporations tendering votes from dirt side. There is a non-zero chance a justice might recieve your discretely worded memo about how they should vote in keeping with your master plan and reply with some suggestion of sex acts impossible for most metatypes in the language of your choosing.

4) Secrecy, you have to surmount all the above problems likely requiring the combined efforts of more people then were involved in the Manhattan project and keep it absolute secret, because if you don't the powers that be are going to annihilate you so thoroughly that your remains won't be found with a really really good electron microscope.

You'd be better off trying to convince your four puppet corps to just overtly try and take over the world, go big or go home.

There is certainly a way to stop an unwanted takeover of your company in Shadowrun.

It's called "hiring shadowrunners". Usually involves bullets and explosives.

Also, if anyone wants more "wait, you're asking WHAT?" type questions, go look through the original poster's post history.


-k

Indeed... Pattyhulez has an interesting History...

I wouldn't be so sure. Richard Villiers is a corporate raider of the type you mentioned. He plays the AAA leagues perfectly well. So far he's made two big AAA corps (Fuchi and Novatech), watched them implode, and come out richer than he started. NeoNet is next.

Sure, he's a sociopath, but he's a very successful one. He is, by himself, a AAA corp, because he owns 100% of JRJ International, which has a charter seat on the Court. He really can't lose it either - it's entirely a paper corp by now. The only way to take his Corporate Court seat away from him would be by killing him, or possibly an Omega Order (which would probably still involve killing him).

Regarding the original topic:
Playing stock games with the AAAs is fatal. Look up Art Dankwalther, who was assassinated by the Court via THOR shot. He wasn't doing anything illegal - he was, in fact playing the same games the AAAs do. He just didn't have the protection of being an insider. He was an inconvenience to Mr. Villiers and the others, so was murdered in an extremely blatant way. No country is going to attempt to charge the Court with murder, so the message is given - don't mess with the AAAs.

Indeed, I was thinking of Villers as well.

Rather than trying to subvert a AAA that is already in place, maybe the OP should look at building his own by absorbing and reorganizing a number of A's and AA's.

Even if a bit shy of full AAA by itself, it could then merge with one of the AAA's much like Villiers did in forging the original Fuchi.

Again it all depends on what the OP is wanting from this.

I wonder what Shadowrun history would be like if nations and non-megacorporate Great Dragons banded together after Art Dankwalther's murder to inform the Corporate Court that blatantly murdering someone who was simply inconvenient to them was not acceptable, and would not be tolerated...

Followed by a Force 58 Wreck Space Station spell being targeted against Zurich Orbital from one of those GDs on the ground, ripping it to shreds and reminding them that orbital weapons are not the ultimate trump card.

That is not a bad idea.

Conversely though we do need that evil/oppression to a degree as it gives us something to set ourselves against.

How much fun would a shadowrun be for the party to pull a run on St. Mary's Hospital for the Poor to steal all their meds from the terminal children's ward to sell off onto the black market?

Would there have ever been a Great Ghost Dance if there had not been the whole Indian internment and suppression?

Without being backed into a corner like that, the various tribes would never have been able to sufficiently organize that sort of mojo. The map would be far different indeed.

It fails the basic question of why would they bother. As long as they maintain parity of effect there's no reason to try and defang an ability they might need.

In other words: The powerful really like the ability to murder the ever loving heck out of those less powerful then them. They have little incentive to prevent that sort of behavior in like powered entities as long as they are not on the recieving end.

Remember the GD's eat people that displease them. The method may be different but the effect is the same, it's good to be a king.

Not all of the Great Dragons are Lofwyr or Sirrug. Some of them actually do subscribe to the idea that the rule of law ought to trump the rule of the might of the greedy. If a few of them and a few of the remaining powers with sufficient military might to back their play banded together to officially put the corporate court on notice that megacorps are not the only players in the "superpower" camp, they'd be listened to. Especially if they did something like, say, erasing every single orbital weapons platform in the skies.

(Seriously, a GD probably has eyesight good enough to hit them without even a telescope. With a telescope, they could definitely do it. Hell, a weapons platform is probably small enough to be adequately Wrecked by a strong magician with a telescope.)

Name one, with the exception of Hestaby (which may have all been a PR stunt) most if not all the greats run more to avarice then altruism. The Philipino great is possibly an exception, and even he might be only an adult.

Simply put the GD's have more investment in the status quo then not, and have little interest in checking the corporate court's power. Hell most of them seem to randomly have control over various corps when it's convenient for the writers to twist and reveal it.

Why would the nations of the world object to killing Dankwalther? He's the guy who randomly destroyed corps and put thousands of unemployed people on the street, with untold additional disruption, just for practice! This was not some unjustified killing just because he was annoying someone.

Because nothing he did was illegal. He was using the same tools, and getting the same effects as the Megas do. He was, however, not in the AAA club, and had a personal agenda that was going to be a problem for one of the AAAs. The issue wasn't what he was doing - it was that he was not a Mega but was becoming an economic threat to a Mega.

The AAAs have a gentleman's agreement. Nobody messes with the balance of power but AAAs. Basic dystopic Machiavellian politics - the AAAs have the power, and play their games against each other, but any outsider who wants to horn in will get stomped by all parties.

The Great Dragons and the IEs would understand perfectly - they operate the same way.

Possibly relevant to OP's question: When Miles Lanier received a ton of shares of Renraku as part of Dunkelzahn's will and all the accusations of conflict of interest went flying, Lanier was forced to sell his stock in one of the AAAs (Novatech, I think) by the Corporate Court. Of course, it all worked out for him and Villiers in the end, but if any one legal entity (individual or corporation) was able to get enough ownership to have controlling interests in four different AAAs, they'd have to be extremely good at covering their tracks to avoid that happening to them. Of course, if they ever actually use their influence, it opens up the opportunity for someone else to learn about it and figure out who's doing it/why it's happening.

I wonder if you wouldn't be better off just saying that your AA has some kind of "influence" over the AAAs, rather than specifying ownership. If the goal is to be able to get certain things done, blackmailing someone else that has the authority is just as easy as getting authority yourself, and there's less conflict-of-interest laws to go through...

Miles was forced to sell because he left Fuchi to go to Renraku and Fuchi's fortunes nosedived. Leading to all those accusations.

I wonder if it is possible to have enough shares in multiple AAAs, enough to have a board seat but not having a controlling interest.